Underrail: The Incline Awakens

[CHEMS]

That'll just make the game grindy. Crafting is fine as it is, with the exception of heartbreak's ridiculous requirement of 150 biology. Besides, dominating kicks you in the face with the economy, you already have to be careful with resource management at early-mid game

 

[Grunker]

XP aside, the skill investment, especially biology/chemistry/electronics, needed for crafting shit should be much more higher, so you're not swimming in focus stims, morphine/adrenaline shots, health hypos and other stuff. Plus make those resources more scarce and more expensive, so they should be rationed carefully and saved for tougher fights. Make W2C ammo more scarce (actually it kinda is, until you make some investment in mercantile and discover the dude in Foundry - then you're just visiting him once in a while and soon drown in hundreds of w2c's).

just play dom and oddity

 

[Piotrovitz]

I always play oddity (beside first run when the game came out - oddity system seemed awkward as hell, who knew it would provide such nice balance, encourage exploration, and generally would be fun). As for Dom - don't have the time/stamina to climb up the difficulty curve to the point where the game is fun/challenging, and not just frustrating. Good to know that beside tougher mobs/bosses it also balances economy, always thought it's just adds HP bloated tougher mobs.

 

[Tigranes]

The game system fundamentally is built for a 1-20 curve, where most builds will acquire everything they need by level 16 or so, and after that it's just bonuses. So level 24 or whatever you're essentially in epic levels, and there really isn't a huge amount of space left for qualitative changes to your character (or your enemies). So with the xpack Underrail essentially has a very long endgame in terms of power curve.

I've done a million playthroughs of course, but at this point I just like playing up to level 22-24 Oddity, picking whichever University and Expedition quests I want to do, and then stopping.

 

[CHEMS]

Most of DOM's difficulty is bloated HP, actually. There's more enemies, sure, but it's all bloat. Dominating is the difficulty where you play your OP builds without getting bored.

 

[Piotrovitz]

Most of DOM's difficulty is bloated HP, actually. There's more enemies, sure, but it's all bloat. Dominating is the difficulty where you play your OP builds without getting bored.

HP bloat is actually welcomed in this case, as run-n-gun high crit free bursts galore and ending most of the fights in 1-2 turns in not much fun after a while.
It's just the beginning of dom that is keeping me from doing a full run - I couldn't finish Newton quest, so I cannot even imagine Depot A.

 

[CHEMS]

Most of DOM's difficulty is bloated HP, actually. There's more enemies, sure, but it's all bloat. Dominating is the difficulty where you play your OP builds without getting bored.

HP bloat is actually welcomed in this case, as run-n-gun high crit free bursts galore and ending most of the fights in 1-2 turns in not much fun after a while.
It's just the beginning of dom that is keeping me from doing a full run - I couldn't finish Newton quest, so I cannot even imagine Depot A.

Newton Quest on DOM: bring 2~3mkII frags and 2 flashbangs, you can cheese the doors to clump all the bugs together and blow them up all at once. They're sensitive to noise, throw a crappy MKI grenade to get their atention, than blow them up with the mkIIs and flash bangs so you don't get killed after throwing the frags. Close doors, wait for cooldowns, repeat. Easy peasy.

Depot A: some sneak, 60 effective hacking and 40 effective lockpick trivializes Depot A. You'll skip most of the fights. The only thing you'll actually need to kill is the mutie with the key to the drill parts.

Early game on DOM is a lot of cheese, but after depot A i usually never use a bear trap again.

 

[Parabalus]

Game is just extremely long with all the new content, makes Classic shine - you can just pick and choose what you want to experience, with no need to play other content.

 

[Piotrovitz]

Most of DOM's difficulty is bloated HP, actually. There's more enemies, sure, but it's all bloat. Dominating is the difficulty where you play your OP builds without getting bored.

HP bloat is actually welcomed in this case, as run-n-gun high crit free bursts galore and ending most of the fights in 1-2 turns in not much fun after a while.
It's just the beginning of dom that is keeping me from doing a full run - I couldn't finish Newton quest, so I cannot even imagine Depot A.

Newton Quest on DOM: bring 2~3mkII frags and 2 flashbangs, you can cheese the doors to clump all the bugs together and blow them up all at once. They're sensitive to noise, throw a crappy MKI grenade to get their atention, than blow them up with the mkIIs and flash bangs so you don't get killed after throwing the frags. Close doors, wait for cooldowns, repeat. Easy peasy.

Depot A: some sneak, 60 effective hacking and 40 effective lockpick trivializes Depot A. You'll skip most of the fights. The only thing you'll actually need to kill is the mutie with the key to the drill parts.

Early game on DOM is a lot of cheese, but after depot A i usually never use a bear trap again.

This is exactly the thing that keeps me from DOM run - figuring out how to cheese my way through or avoid every avoidable fight by using stealth, until the build starts to gain shape.

What would be nice is a customizable difficulty, e.g. I want the bosses to hp bloated like on dom, or having tougher mid/late game mobs, so you still have decent challenge when your build is up and running, but without the early game chore/slog/cheese.

 

[thesecret1]

This is exactly the thing that keeps me from DOM run - figuring out how to cheese my way through or avoid every avoidable fight by using stealth, until the build starts to gain shape.

It's really just newton's quest with the azuridae, and the old junkyard. The only two big hurdles to overcome on DOM, and both can be beaten with either stealth (no need to actually invest in stealth, just put on a balaclava, tabi shoes, and some leather armor with black overcloth), or molotovs, grenades, and bear traps. A lot of it features cheesing the doors, but DOM is balanced with cheese in mind – it's there for if hard just isn't hard enough.

 

[Piotrovitz]

Thanks, good to know that after Junkyard difficulty smoothens out.

On my only attempt on Dom, the Newton's quest seemed impossible. Looks like beside cheesing, it also requires some meta knowledge, like pumping chemistry from the start, in order to craft MKII HEs/flashbangs, or stealth (is it even possible to squeeze through, even with extra gear? Always seemed that there's too many of them for stealthy approach).

Also, from what I see in discussion about builds, there's always psi involved left and right - won't Dom be too hard/chore for a simpleton like me, who dislikes cave magic and prefer SMG/hit-n-run/grenadier build?

 

[Piotrovitz]

and why I'm a huge proponent of a custom difficulty options that'd allow to mix and match the characteristics of difficulties, and to enable BOTH the icy tower and master blaster encounters in a single playthrough, and tattoos and charms - bloat the bosses, unbloat the mooks

This.

With so many updates/patches, it's baffling that Styg did not included this.

 

[Parabalus]

This is exactly the thing that keeps me from DOM run - figuring out how to cheese my way through or avoid every avoidable fight by using stealth, until the build starts to gain shape.

It's really just newton's quest with the azuridae, and the old junkyard. The only two big hurdles to overcome on DOM, and both can be beaten with either stealth (no need to actually invest in stealth, just put on a balaclava, tabi shoes, and some leather armor with black overcloth), or molotovs, grenades, and bear traps. A lot of it features cheesing the doors, but DOM is balanced with cheese in mind – it's there for if hard just isn't hard enough.

If you really don't care for early DOM you can always import a character with a few levels.

 

[CHEMS]

This is exactly the thing that keeps me from DOM run - figuring out how to cheese my way through or avoid every avoidable fight by using stealth, until the build starts to gain shape.

It's really just newton's quest with the azuridae, and the old junkyard. The only two big hurdles to overcome on DOM, and both can be beaten with either stealth (no need to actually invest in stealth, just put on a balaclava, tabi shoes, and some leather armor with black overcloth), or molotovs, grenades, and bear traps. A lot of it features cheesing the doors, but DOM is balanced with cheese in mind – it's there for if hard just isn't hard enough.

Worst thing about DOM is Silent Isle if you do it before Depot A. Facing goliathuses at level 8? No way, thankfully they're easy to stealth by

 

[Tigranes]

DOM Newton / Depot A cheese is absolutely build dependent. Anyone telling you otherwise has either only played a few builds or is just bad.

Any build with a main weapon coming online later (e.g. chem pistolero, or even a sniper possibly, etc) or with a main weapon not effective against them (e.g. Thought Control or pyro specialist) is going to struggle with Newton's quest, but conversely, let's say a SMG/AR/Shotgun user will get through it surprisingly smoothly. It could even be a factor of whether you managed to find a decent Hammerer in the loot or not. Of course, early game is also deceptively open-ended, so an intrepid player can first sneak/hightail it to Junkyard, maybe steal the energy gun in the building and return to the Azuridae with a vengeance.

Azuridae Goliath in Silent Isle, again, are sometimes fucking impossible, but equally some of my characters found it quite smooth - e.g. if you have the range, let's say, you set up the acid caltrops all the way then you can hit them and stay out of range while they slowly loop round to you. It's a different challenge to the Newton Azuridae, though, and that's what's fun about DOM - the jacked up numbers really highlight what situations your guy can or cannot handle.

Again depending on build, you could end up quite smoothly fighting all of Depot A (e.g. shotgunner, probably any psi build against human enemies, anyone with dirty kick, etc) - but you also might just hack the robots and sneak to avoid almost all the fights.

There are certain builds that require extensive cheesing early on, but it's not something you have to suffer every single time just to be able to play on DOM.

 

[Tigranes]

Thanks, good to know that after Junkyard difficulty smoothens out.

On my only attempt on Dom, the Newton's quest seemed impossible. Looks like beside cheesing, it also requires some meta knowledge, like pumping chemistry from the start, in order to craft MKII HEs/flashbangs, or stealth (is it even possible to squeeze through, even with extra gear? Always seemed that there's too many of them for stealthy approach).

Also, from what I see in discussion about builds, there's always psi involved left and right - won't Dom be too hard/chore for a simpleton like me, who dislikes cave magic and prefer SMG/hit-n-run/grenadier build?

DOM absolutely is intended for metaknowledge, yes, but with sufficient knowledge and player skill, almost every logical build can be enjoyed in it, from professional knife-thrower to no-psi gunner to sniper to unarmed boy. Psi always makes everything easier but totally fine not to have it.

Share your prospective build with us if you like. I jumped into DOM after several Hard playthroughs and initially found it a bit crazy, but soon after I knew there was no going back.

 

[lukaszek]

DOM Newton / Depot A cheese is absolutely build dependent. Anyone telling you otherwise has either only played a few builds or is just bad.

bro, all you need is few points into throwing. Or dont and reload?
Afaik bear traps do not require any skill investment

Worst thing about DOM is Silent Isle if you do it before Depot A. Facing goliathuses at level 8? No way, thankfully they're easy to stealth by

actually they are not that easy to stealth by. Whole thing could be fixed if either:
- ferryman gets silenced gun
- rathounds and azuridae become hostile factions. BTW why arent they?

 

[CHEMS]

The bugs have really low detection. Easiest build for silent isle is TC by far: you can shut down the pillar and give the big beetles 8 turns of fear with mental breakdown. My tactic usually is to kill most if not all the smaller beatles and kite the Goliathuses. Problem is, they tend to clump together and then it gets really hard

Newton's quest is a joke if you have grenades, especially now that you can save 10AP per turn, just bring grenades, flashbangs and about 2 adrenaline shots and you get by just fine

 

[CHEMS]

Before the world opens, it's cheese land, but after that unless your build sucks it's a smooth ride

By the way, in my current run i got an advanced catalyzing belt from Gort, feels god man

 

[Tigranes]

I'm assuming spending 5 grenades and 5 traps on one encounter is "cheesing" in this discussion. Otherwise, everything is doable of course

 

[lukaszek]

I'm assuming spending 5 grenades and 5 traps on one encounter is "cheesing" in this discussion. Otherwise, everything is doable of course

yeah but you did claim that utilizing this cheese is build dependent.

Anyway I disagree to call it a cheese. You prepare your battlefield in advance, big part as of why underrail is so good. And this early getting enough traps and grenades isnt trivial on dominating.
Also do bear in mind that you are fighting mindless bugs.

Door closing is a cheese on other hand, at least in a situation when enemy hiding behind it can move freely and you are just abusing tb nature of encounter. Its not needed in newton rescue though.

I can think of only a single encounter where trapping might be called a cheese and thats rathound king one. He is inteligent so being trapped along with rathounds is meh. Also him not reacting to door being opened, allowing you to create a choke point

 

[CHEMS]

I'm assuming spending 5 grenades and 5 traps on one encounter is "cheesing" in this discussion. Otherwise, everything is doable of course

1 MKI and 2 MKII is all you need for this quest on DOM. The flashbangs and adrenaline are for quality of life.

 

[Tigranes]

lukaszek I'm saying some builds don't need to use nades/traps at all early game, while other builds kind of must.

I don't think it's bad cheating cheese or anything, just a shorthand. Using exit zones is probably more gamey. It's certainly a legit strategy to, say, pickpocket your way into $ for Mk III grenades in the first hour of the game.

Rathound King does come to disarm your traps if your traps skill is low.

 

[CHEMS]

lukaszek I'm saying some builds don't need to use nades/traps at all early game, while other builds kind of must.

I don't think it's bad cheating cheese or anything, just a shorthand. Using exit zones is probably more gamey. It's certainly a legit strategy to, say, pickpocket your way into $ for Mk III grenades in the first hour of the game.

Rathound King does come to disarm your traps if your traps skill is low.

>close his door
>lay traps
>blow up C4
>shoot him when he opens the door
I'm the master of cheese, i can cheese everything, i could end drop zone hunger with my cheese

 

[lukaszek]

Rathound King does come to disarm your traps if your traps skill is low.

on dom his detection is insane and always disarms everything in my experience.
But even him got some range of it, I think it was like 1 tile in front of the door. As such you open the door first, then lay down all the traps he gifted you on your way, then grab his attention with a grenade or something. Wont really lose getting grenade on cd if you use molotov/napalm.

Yeah as such I didn't even think of having him open the door like CHEMS did. I forgot about npcs opening doors for you after stygg fixed wyatt